Choose Kind Songs By Design

At Storytime Solidarity, we endeavor to keep our songs kind so that everyone feels welcome. See our list of Problematic Songs to be aware of.

Don’t Whitewash

It is our stance at Storytime Solidarity that simply changing the lyrics to problematic songs is not sufficient. Other resources don’t note that some songs are problematic if the lyrics have been changed to omit certain terminology. Storytime Solidarity founder, Ms. Kate (The Lavender Librarian), is a musicologist by training (MA Western University 2008) and consulted with multiple PhDs before working on this list. Since early songs began to transcribe the music they used for worship, the tune of the song has been used to impart meaning. In very early music this was considered the case even if the original tune was not heard but only used as a baseline for the underlying chord structure.

As such, we believe the tunes carry the original intent and associations with them. This means avoiding songs with obviously age-inappropriate naughtiness, such as “The Drunken Sailor.”

This means that we recommend against singing songs that have been used in the past to harm and dehumanize people.

Research

We research the history and origins of the songs we sing to children, and if original or past versions of the songs contain unsavoury elements, we don’t sing them. If something slips past us in our research, please let us know!

Join Us On Our Journey

Kindness is an ongoing journey and we feel like we’re just getting started. If anyone sees anything we’ve included on our website that seems to go against our values, please inform us so we can make corrections. Join us in building a kinder world, the world children need and deserve — one song at a time!

Resources

Storytime Solidarity List of Problematic Songs

Songs with a Questionable Past – a Google doc compiled by Lauren McDougle at the American Kodaly Institute.

Decolonizing the Music Room — a nonprofit organization aiming to disrupt the minimization and erasure of non-dominant cultures and identities in the field of music education.

Know Better Do Better Project — encourages conversation and awareness of songs that have played a role in sustaining systemic racism, and the writing of new alternative songs.

Do you know other great resources for keeping problematic songs out of storytime? Please let us know!